Scan this footage of Super Mario Advance 4's e-Reader content

by JC Fletcher on Aug 12th 2010 1:20AM

Why would anyone put their money into a GBA e-Reader and a remake of Super Mario Bros. 3, a game that everyone on Earth already has? The video after the break makes a pretty good case for why people did so, and for why you'll be headed to eBay momentarily.

The e-Reader cards unlocked new levels and content from other Mario games for use in Advance 4. There was even entirely new material, like blocks that could only be broken by hammers, or see-saw platforms. Some of this stuff wasn't even available to American players, existing only on Japanese cards. The result is a kind of ultimate Mario game, with elements from across the whole series. Kind of cruel to limit it to an unwieldy card-reader setup, now that we think about it.

[Image: Super Mario Wiki]

Source: GoNintendo

Tags: ds, e-reader, game-boy-advance, gba, nintendo, super-mario-advance-4, super-mario-bros-3, wii

Reader Comments (42)

I was with Circuit City during the GBA hay day. Nintendo sure had an odd way of numbering their Advance Mario games, that's for sure.

Huh, I guess Sonic made a cameo in a Nintendo game way earlier than everyone thought.

@Xiegfried

I remember a magazine, probably Gamepro, made a note of that when Super Mario World first came out.

I actually bought the e-Reader and it helped me unlock a lot of hidden content in Animal Crossing

What!? Why doesn't Nintendo just release awesome games like this instead of NEW SMB :(

@Rocket Raccoon

Implying NSMBWii wasn't awesome? I don't doubt they could have done more with it, but it was a superior game in its own right.

@Mr Khan

I think it was a good game, but for some reason it didn't quite capture the feel of SMB3 or Super Mario World. It felt more like an extension of SMB1, which is fine. It's just not really for me quite as much. I didn't have the super strong desire to just keep playing it.

@Rocket Raccoon I liked the DS one a lot, just couldn't get into the Wii one and sold it pretty fast.

@Rocket Raccoon

I've never been downvoted before :(

It's not that I didn't like NSMB, I would just rather they made games more like this.

Kinda odd, posting about the e-reader so randomly...

I love my e-reader, and still have all my cards. it just sucks they didn't support it for very long.

The mario e-cards were kinda annoying to get. First, they had the 3 packed in with the game (discontinued in later releases). Then they had the 5 Wal-Mart promos (some of the rarest e-cards). Then they only release the first 2 sets, and leave the rest in japan. Annoying.

And don't get me started on the Megaman Battle Network cards.

I just wish there was still someone to trade with, I still have big gaps in my Animal Crossing series 2 & 3 collection.

Sweet! I just moved, and found my e-reader in doing so, I need to figure out how to print these properly.

@SystemPatch
I gpto an e-reader just 2 years ago and I've only managed to use a single card. It was a mini-game on a pokemon card. I think I have one that lets me battle some trainer in pokemon emerald thoug, but I've never used it.

@KaBob799

It's probably either "Gentlrman Niles" or "Lady Astrid". Both of those are promos pack in with either Ruby or Sapphire. They had a whole set of cards where you could scan in trainers to battle, as well as berries. They also had some for FireRed/Leaf Green and Emerald, but like most e-cards, those didn't make it out of Japan.

You can actually play the extra content via an emulator and certain save states. Really isn't hard to experience it!

@Rezsnore how? im sorry for asking but i really wanna play this :o

I think I threw out a lot of cards when I moved which is a shame. The e-Reader's main flaw was that it wasn't supported enough and maybe didn't have all too many quality uses.

Looks like someone's been lurking NeoGAF...

I had forgotten how awesome the Mario 64 ending theme was. Shame on me.

Reminds me of that fan-game, Super Mario Bros X.

The combination of all the games' best features would make for a hugely badass Mario game. They should make something like this for the DS.

Here's a link if anyone wants SMBX: http://www.supermariobrothers.org/smbx/
It's even got a level editor that works really smooth. I spent something like 60 hours between playing the preloaded module and making my own stuff.

@Mach2

WHOOPS.
I'd forgotten, I first heard about Super Mario Bros. X right here on this very blog. My bad.

I really wish they'd release something like this as WiiWare. It'd sell through the freakin' roof.

@False

Hell yeah! Just call it "Super Mario Bros. Ultimate Edition"

Kind of a random article to suddenly post, but nonetheless it is definitely cool. I only had Mario Advance 1, I never looked into the rest of the games. I had an e-reader as well, but only a few Pokemon cards, and some Nintendo arcade games. I wish I had known about this. I need to look up into an emulator now.

The 3DS better have a virtual console, I'm kinda mad that my DSi can play any classic mario, at all... nintendo needs to rectify this.

Imagine the 3DS or even DSi camera being able to scan your e-card, or simply scan something through a monitor screen or normal barcode from coupon/magazine.

I still have my E-reader and a ton of cards to go with it. I played the crap out of manhole. And I got lucky and loaded up on Mario 4 cards when walmart had them on clearance years ago.

Looks pretty nifty. Would be the best old school Mario game if all these elements were combined into one game.

I still have my e-Reader, it really is a shame it wasn't very supported, but I was able to get at least a few SMA4 cards. It was easy to cheat with, just scan the same item card over and over.

Am I only person who rolled their eyes at the e-Reader? It was one giant excuse for Nintendo to sell an accessory and then capitalize on it by selling us a bunch of card packets. Sort of like that 'connectivity' BS was an excuse to sell GBA-GCN link cables instead of putting in a decent online infrastructure. Sure these levels might be neat (I'm not particularly impressed with them), but the need to force us to buy the game and the e-Reader ($50 IIRC) AND the card packets was ridiculous. It came as no surprise that Nintendo stopped supporting the e-Reader in North America after a short time.

@ShinAntonio

No, you're not alone. I hate gimmicks like this, even if they lead to interesting results. My favorite part of that video is the music, by far.

@ShinAntonio Everybody rolled their eyes at it. That's why it was so poorly supported, and why we never got the second and third batches of SMB3 cards.

Thankfully I still have all the SMB3 cards, unfortunately I don't have the reader... which makes having the cards kinda pointless actually.

The e-Reader was cool, though I think it would have been better if it was built into the system so you didn't have to have that bulky thing on top of your GBA.

Makes me proud to have bought all that stuff when it was out :D

Meh, I missed the entire GBA generation of games. Looks interesting though.

I like how the movie explained all the obvious/insignificant stuff (this block has a = face!), but wouldn't tell me what an A-coin or an E-coin was. :/

This was already one of my favorite games ever, I wish I could find an e-reader.

This page has links to a program that lets you print your own cards. It's often a pain in the butt to get it to work, but for me, it was worth it to have the extra levels.

http://users.skynet.be/firefly/gba/e-reader/tools/index.htm

Just download the eReader Dot Code Print program and you're on your way! This page doesn't have the level codes, but I'm sure they're out there somewhere. Remember to use premium copy paper or photo paper. I never got it to work with regular copy paper or cardstock.

I was so upset when they didn't publish series 3 and series 4 of these cards here in the US. I eventually got some pre-loaded ROMs of SMBA4, but it was still annoying.

I just dug up my e-reader and found the cards. I then realized why I don't remember them. You needed 2 GBAs connected with a link cable. One for the e-reader and one to play the game.

Kind of funny how this predates all DLC, and is pretty much the same idea.

I think the e-Reader would've done better if linking it to other GBA games didn't require a second GBA.

I had an e-reader before it was cool. Or rather, when it came out.

I got mine about a month ago at GameStop for $1.99 and they came with a few cards
http://www.gamestop.com/Catalog/ProductDetails.aspx?product_id=22413

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Scan this footage of Super Mario Advance 4's e-Reader content

Reader Comments (42)

Posted: Aug 12th 2010 1:28AM JohnDM said

Posted: Aug 12th 2010 1:35AM Xiegfried said

Posted: Aug 12th 2010 1:41PM Axcalibur said

Posted: Aug 12th 2010 1:35AM Nap said

Posted: Aug 12th 2010 1:44AM Rocket Raccoon said

Posted: Aug 12th 2010 11:59AM Mr Khan said

Posted: Aug 12th 2010 1:12PM Rocket Raccoon said

Posted: Aug 13th 2010 11:51AM SolidSnakeEyes said

Posted: Aug 13th 2010 12:36PM Rocket Raccoon said

Posted: Aug 12th 2010 1:48AM SystemPatch said

Posted: Aug 12th 2010 7:59AM thelolotov said

Posted: Aug 12th 2010 1:25PM KaBob799 said

Posted: Aug 12th 2010 6:37PM SystemPatch said

Posted: Aug 12th 2010 1:54AM Rezsnore said

Posted: Sep 13th 2010 11:16PM Juggalo SteWieH said

Posted: Aug 12th 2010 2:28AM Ericeman said

Posted: Aug 12th 2010 2:34AM GanonSmash said

Posted: Aug 12th 2010 2:35AM Faerie Tael said

Posted: Aug 12th 2010 3:08AM Mach2 said

Posted: Aug 12th 2010 3:12AM Mach2 said

Posted: Aug 12th 2010 3:17AM False said

Posted: Aug 12th 2010 11:09AM GuitarHero666 said

Posted: Aug 12th 2010 3:51AM Arizone said

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Posted: Aug 12th 2010 7:42AM SitriStahl said

Posted: Aug 12th 2010 9:40AM ShinAntonio said

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